Scientific Foundation for Global Computing

Abstract

It is a big honour to be able to speak at one of the most exciting conferences I have been to for 20 years.

I feel in some ways daunted because, although the development of connections between biology and computer science may seem wonderful from outside, we know that they depend crucially on details. We have to believe with confidence that what we have already done justifies bringing the subjects together in this way. I think that’s we are going to see in the later talks. I want to try to anticipate a little bit of that here. But first I want to talk about global computing. We may describe it, fancifully perhaps, as the arrival of a single global computer, which is increasingly pervading lives.